FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. – We had a really special moment on The Morning Show today. Dozens of sea turtle hatchlings in Fernandina Beach decided to make their way to the ocean as our cameras were rolling!
The big moment for these little critters typically happens overnight, so it was a rare experience.
About 30 loggerheads scooted down the beach toward the Atlantic Ocean -- with a little help from some trained volunteers with Amelia Island Sea Turtle Watch (AISTW).
“It is really fun to see the babies,” said Kelly Marine, a volunteer who is in her first year of having an assigned route every morning on the beach. “They are very cute. It is nice to know that they made it out there.”
“That is a perfect nest,” said Sharon Randa. “You do not want to see any dead ones. Still there are sometimes not alive turtle in the egg. It still gives me goosebumps all these years.”
“This is all kind of new to me,” said David Randa, who is also a volunteer. “It is always fun to find a nest, see the emerging tracks, the new ones. Now seeing the results and helping them out into the ocean.”
“It helps me understand how amazing the natural habitat is,” said Bill Bokram, who is the vice president of AISTW. “Because sea turtles are one of the many living things that are on this beach. I can say for all of our volunteers, the more that we learn about this, the more that we realize we don’t know about creatures who live in the ocean. Sea turtles live in the ocean. They only come up on the to lay eggs.”
Over the last 10 years, Fernandina Beach has averaged about 200 nests by this point of the season -- about halfway. Right now, though, only 122 nests have been documented.
A recent beach renourishment project that finished pumping sand onto the beach from the ocean last week could be a contributing factor.
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“We have equipment dredging the St. Marys River. They are pumping sand back on. They just finished that project last week, but in that 3-mile stretch, we are having to relocate a majority of our nests,” explained Amelia Island Sea Turtle Watch volunteer Danielle Sheehan. “With that activity, the lights, the sounds, it is kind of causing some of our sea turtles to nests in some other locations.”
Sheehan clarified that only 20 nests were relocated as a part of the project. Lower numbers of sea turtle nests is a statewide occurrence this year.
Sheehan said there is belief that loggerheads, which are the most common species of sea turtles seen in Fernandina Beach, could be having a nesting “off” year. Mother sea turtles typically lay eggs every three years.
It also comes as the state has broken a record for leatherback nests with 1,960 according to the FWC. Most of them are in the southern part of Florida although one is in Fernandina Beach.
Sheehan is among 17 volunteers who visit the beach every day during the season to count eggs, so they can share data with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The trained volunteers can actually get hands-on with the eggs and hatchlings because they are permitted by the FWC.
Amelia Island Sea Turtle Watch has completed two successful excavations already. That is when they dig up a sea turtle nests several days after a nest is confirmed to count how many eggs hatched and how many did not. They then send all the data back to the FWC.
Beyond the two excavations, the group also found two established nests Thursday night into early Friday morning, which means there will be some more excavations on Monday.
